Homeowners

by Meghann on August 29, 2014

We’re homeowners.

(again)

Derek and I closed on our new house on Tuesday. It was a bittersweet day filled with mixed emotions of both happiness and sorrow. We had planned to invite friends and family over to celebrate afterwards, but the idea of celebrating was too much for me. We’ll have a get together at our place a little bit further down the road.

Our closing was actually a bit of a nail biter. There were a lot of last minute documents that still needed to be processed and we didn’t get the call to sign our final papers until very late in the afternoon. After a month of preparation, it felt like they waited until the last minute to move the closing forward. I guess that’s how it always is, right? We spent approximately 30 minutes signing papers (my hand still hurts) and that was it. We bought a house.

Maddie, for one, is thrilled.

The closing on our other place earlier in the day was much less involved and took less than 10 minutes. Yep, that’s right, we sold our condo/attached home/three-years-later-I’m-still-not-sure-what-to-call-it and closed the same day we closed on our new place. Talk about amazing timing, right?

The truth is we got lucky. Really, really lucky. Do you want to know the secret to selling a home? Before you put it on the market, tell a neighbor that you’re planning to sell in the next few months. Let that neighbor tell another neighbor, who tells another neighbor, who tells another neighbor, until the right neighbor receives the news.

The right neighbor called us while we were shopping in Target and somehow we sold our house while simultaneously picking out a new cooler for an upcoming vacation. #TrueStory I’m still not quite sure I can believe.

Since we were selling to our neighbor, we were able to be pretty flexible with closing dates. And since she was paying cash, the process was about 100x easier than closing on our new place. We were even able work a deal where we could stay in our current place for another two weeks after closing, since we’re not able to move until next weekend.

So we closed on the first house around noon and turned right around to apply that money to the next house. For a couple of hours we were 100% debt free. We celebrated with Starbucks and daydreams of what we could do with that new freedom if we weren’t buying a house…like skipping town and heading to Hawaii or becoming drifters.

Alas, we didn’t skip town. We wired our cash to the title company and sold our souls to the mortgage company. I’m pretty sure I signed something about the mortgage company owning my butt for the next 30 years.

So there you have. We sold our current place, bought a new place, and right now my living room looks like this:

Boxes. Everywhere.

Unfortunately timing sucks. All I want to do is lay on the couch and instead I’m forced to pack up my entire life and move it in the next week. Trust me, I’m excited, just a little burnt out. Where’s the pause button? My life manual is missing that one.

I’ll post more photos of the new place as I take them. We have a few DIY projects we need to take care of (remove the popcorn ceiling, new floors in the living room, etc.) that I’m sure I’ll blog about.

Oh, and who wants to come for swim?

As much as we fought having one, I’m little excited we have a pool now (though, I’m sure that will fade the first time it turns green and we can’t figure out why ).

Really happy for you guys, you deserve and need it right now. Throwing yourself into setting up the new place will be good for you, keeping busy and keeping your mind off things is what you need. Tons of luck to you both!!!!

Congrats!! Life isn’t very good about giving us pause buttons, this is something I’ve definitely learned. But it’s in these moments when I feel we grow the most, so hang on tight and enjoy the ride! 🙂Katie @ Talk Less, Say More recently posted..The Best of August 2014

Get stuck in with house stuff. It seems like a chore right now while feeling so delicate and emotional but a project will really help. A little bit of time for you and Derek to get settled too. You’re such a brave woman… Katie (@talk less, say more) is so right about the pause button but believe me – you’re not alone at all in how you feel or what you’re going through.

Congrats! Try to enjoy that feeling even though you are experiencing a rough situation.
A little note: If it is in your budget, look into a pool service (even if it’s only for basic maintaining a few times a year). It will mean you get to enjoy the pool without dreading the green water 🙂
My husband and I were dreading the yard work that came with our dream home (dream HOME not dream yard 🙂 ). After one year of doing it and loathing it, we examined our budget and made lawn maintenance service work. It is so nice and worth the money spent. I struggled at first with it because it’s just us, so I thought it was lazy on our part since we don’t have kids we are taking places, dealing with, etc. but in the end I realized that if worked in our budget and we were both ok with the money going to that, then that was all that mattered. It is truly money well spent.

Congrats! How frustrating about everything coming together at the last minute. So glad I didn’t have to deal with anything like that, I would have been a ball of nerves. But it sounds like you’re through all that now.Kelly recently posted..Smoked Eggplant and Goat Cheese Dip